Elon Musk has taken control of Twitter Inc (TWTR.N) with ruthless efficiency, immediately firing top executives while providing little clarity on how he will achieve the lofty ambitions he has outlined for the influential social media platform.
“The bird is freed,” he tweeted after completing his $44 billion acquisition on Thursday, referring to Twitter’s bird logo in an apparent nod to his desire for the company to have fewer restrictions on what can be posted.
Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) CEO and self-described free speech absolutist Elon Musk has said he wants to keep the platform from becoming an echo chamber for hate and division.
But Musk has not provided information on how he intends to do all of this or who would lead the company. He has stated that he intends to make job cuts, which has Twitter’s 7,500 employees worried about the future. On Thursday, he added that he bought Twitter “to attempt to benefit humanity, whom I love,” rather than in order to increase his financial gain.
According to people familiar with the situation, Musk sacked Twitter’s chief executive Parag Agrawal as well as its chief financial officer Ned Segal and its director of legal and policy Vijaya Gadde. Regarding the quantity of phoney accounts on Twitter, he claimed they had misled him and the investors.
The sources added that Agrawal and Segal were removed out of Twitter’s San Francisco offices where they were present when the agreement was finalised.
According to Bloomberg, which cited a source familiar with the situation, Musk, who also owns the rocket company SpaceX, intends to end permanent user bans and take over as CEO of Twitter after the transaction is finalised.
Requests for response from Twitter, Musk, and the executives were not immediately fulfilled.
Musk entered Twitter’s offices on Wednesday carrying a porcelain sink and a large smile before finalising the sale, tweeting “let that sink in.” He updated his Twitter bio to read “Chief Twit.”
Additionally, he attempted to allay employee worries about impending mass layoffs and reassured advertisers that his prior criticism of Twitter’s content was unfounded.
